She realised that he had been drinking, and remembered all too clearly that he was not a good drunk. She was stammering now as she tried to placate her big, powerful husband. ‘I’m sorry . . . Look, Len, it was just a joke . . .’

Lenny, even drunk as he was, knew deep inside that he should not be bullying the woman who had done nothing to him. But he couldn’t stop. The anger had been building inside him since the run-in with the Carters. And now, weeks later, it had reached boiling point.

Sharon felt cold dread wash over her as he advanced. The kitchen table was between them and, as she tried to run away from him, he leaned across it and dragged her by the jumper over the table towards him. All the while he was screaming and shouting at her, his words making no sense whatsoever.

‘You and your smart fucking mouth! You can’t keep it shut, can you!’

As he raised his fist, she pulled away from him with all the strength she possessed, and ran into the hallway. Lenny chased her, so drunk his huge body was banging against the doorway and the walls. He brought her down by the front door, sending the telephone table crashing to the floor. He hit her three times in the face and head before his sons’ screams broke through his anger. He looked up the stairs and saw them watching, wide-eyed and white-faced, as he attacked their mother.

It was as if Lenny was waking up from some kind of nightmare. He looked at his Sharon, and saw the blood streaming from her nose and mouth. She was terrified and he pulled himself off her and staggered to the sink where he started to throw up the whisky and brandy he had been consuming all afternoon in the pub.

Sharon dragged herself from the floor; the shock of what had happened had barely set in, so she didn’t even hurt anywhere yet. Seeing the blood dripping down on to her clothes, she stared at it in total amazement until her maternal instincts took over and she went up the stairs and gathered her sons to her. That was when the tears started.

Lenny could hear his wife and his sons sobbing above him and he stood gripping the sink tightly, wondering at what he had turned into.

But he knew exactly what was wrong with him, and he couldn’t admit it to anyone in the world.

He was frightened his secret was out.

Chapter Fifty-Four